Another newbie question related to this....
Is it a case of doing either Oxylate vapour or something like Apiguard, or could you do both Oxylate vapour and Apiguard?
I'd be assuming you'd do them some time apart to avoid overly stressing the bees with pest control interventions.
Apiguard is a fine treatment for this time of year (after harvest, before cold weather). It costs about £5/colony and doesn't really need any extra kit - just a small eke, usually made from cheap or scrap stripwood, though Thorne and other suppliers do sell them for about a fiver.
Treatment lasts about six weeks and needs to be finished before the cold weather starts.
Treating now should help get healthy "winter bees" surviving to do work in the spring.
Oxalic acid is currently not an officially authorised treatment. Because bees are food-producing animals, this does have potential legal implications.
However, it is accepted as being very effective, which currently puts it into a very confusing grey area. This will change soon (possibly later this year) with approval of an oxalic product "Api-Bioxal".
Normally, it is used as a midwinter treatment to try and minimise the varroa in the colony during the important spring build-up. Treating in December when the colony has no sealed brood, means that the varroa have nowhere to shelter to avoid treatment.
It is quite normal to treat with Apiguard in Autumn AND with Oxalic in December.
For beginners, the simpler, safer and cheaper way to use Oxalic is in a syrup.
Treating like that (buying-in the syrup in a special dosing bottle) costs about £3/colony and requires absolutely no extra kit whatsoever. The treatment is over and done with in minutes per colony. Just be sure to get the syrup only very shortly before use - once made up and ready to use, it has a very short shelf-life.
Those with different situations may find it worthwhile to spend £30 or so on a protective mask and goggles, plus £100 or so on vaporising kit, and then pennies per colony on the chemical.
For beginners, the simple midwinter option is trickling syrup. Later, you might make up your own syrup (for pennies per colony) and reuse those dosing bottles you've saved. Api-Bioxal should legitimise this route.
I would advise against beginners thinking of trying vaporising in their first winter as a beekeeper. Find out more about it, and watch it being done, before deciding to invest.
Some experimenters, having got the kit for vaporising, are trying different ways of employing it. I wouldn't suggest that beginners should experiment like this.
If you haven't already done so, do download and study the sound middle-of-the-road official advice in the free booklet "Managing Varroa". See
http://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21261
